Victor Babu alias Victor, a native of Dharmavaram in Andhra Pradesh, was held following a complaint filed by a few parents. Police recovered prayer books, pamphlets and other material from him and registered a case under Section 295A of the Indian Penal Code.

The article got me thinking. The Government of India has rightfully banned any kind of conversion activities in India. I applaud the effort of the Government of India and congratulate the efforts of the Indian Police.

I would like to draw the attention of the Governemt of India and Indian Police to another community which has been practising conversion in India for a very long time and has surprisingly escaped any kind of attention so far.

Like this:

The Baha’i faith as it stands today faces a challenge of becoming irrelevant to the sayings of Baha’u’llah and Abdul Baha. Having failed to attract converts and not getting acceptance from the world society, the Baha’i Faith today is trying to serve itself as a religion in terms of writing OPEN LETTERS (as against Holy writings!!) that have no bearing whatsoever on the targeted people.

Very recently we heard about a petition made by 31 Imminent Indians to the Government of Iran, on another occasion we heard that Baha’is wrote an irrelevant letter to the people of Egypt. There was again an ‘Open letter’ in the Wall Street Journal republished Dr. Kishan Manocha, Director of the Office of External Affairs of the Bahá’í community of the UK. The document, dated 7th December and addressed to Ayatollah Mohammad Sadeq Larijani, stating the injustices meted out to Iranian Baha’is. Many more open letters must be in the pipe line.

The National Spiritual Assembly of Baha’is of Indonesia was elected on 21st April 1954.

The Baha’i administration in Haifa entrusted the propagation of the Baha’i Faith in Indonesia to India and of Mentawai Islands to Australia. Baha’is went on forming local Assemblies. They went for mass teaching approach towards propagation of the Baha’i Faith which resulted in the growth of the Baha’i population there. In 1957 they acquired a temple site to build a Baha’i Temple in future. At the same time, Baha’is went on incorporating their local Assembly to avoid any action from the Government of Indonesia in future.

The Indonesian Police arrested three Bahá’ís on criminal charges of teaching and converting Muslim children in Lampung Timur, Sumatra. The Police mentioned there is very compelling evidence of the crime and violation.

The Government of Indonesia requires that official religions comply with a number of Ministry of Religious Affairs and other ministerial directives in their registration and activities. Among these are the Regulation on Building Houses of Worship (Joint-Ministerial Decree No. 1/1969); the Guidelines for the Propagation of Religion (Ministerial Decision No. 70/1978); Overseas Aid to Religious Institutions in Indonesia (Ministerial Decision No. 20/1978); and Proselytizing Guidelines (No. 77/1978). Law of Child Protection 23-2002 which states that “whoever converts or attempts to convert children to other religion will be charged up to 5 years prison or fine of U$10,000 or both.